Self-Promotion…finding my way.

After a week of furious writing–48,000 words and counting!–I spent yesterday morning researching poisonous snakes–did you know North Carolina is the number one state for poisonous snakebites? I didn’t, but I do now and I fully expect to have a few nightmares after reading about it! Then to take my mind off the hideousness of that and to calm the heebie-jeebies a bit, I spent a couple of hours browsing through the promotion sites I have on my favorites list.

There are a lot of them out there, some packed full of really good tips and some with only a few, but worth reading anyway. A couple of my favorites:

Both well-worth reading. And then there’s DeAnna Cameron’s blog, On Writing, Publishing, and Other Odds and Ends (many thanks to author Lisa Alber for directing me to this sight!). It’s a great source for learning about what other authors are doing to promote their books. Ms. Cameron has asked various authors the all-important question, “How’d you find your audience?” Some of their responses are helpful, some priceless, and all entertaining to an aspiring author with a book coming out soon.

Finally, there’s a great article in last month’s RWR, Self-Promotion for the Introvert by Jane McBride Choate. Haven’t checked to see if this is available on-line, I suspect it is on the RWA site, but I don’t know if you have to be a member to access it. Anyway, it’s an interesting article and in my case, highly appropriate because I consider myself the most introverted of all introverts. Seriously, I don’t like peopleI could do without people I’m shy, damn it!

One of the best things about this ariticle? It validates something I’ve suspected for quite a while now; the efficacy of having a MySpace, Facebook, etc. page. The following quote comes from Gwen Shuster-Haynes, a Harvard MBA who has an online class for writers; “Introverts and Extroverts: Create a Career Path Built on Your Strengths.” Ms. Shuster-Haynes says, “If you write books that are read by readers ‘of a certain age,’ creating a presence on MySpace.com or Facebook.com doesn’t make sense because your readers aren’t spending time at MySpace and Facebook. If, however, you write with a hip, fun voice that attracts college students, your marketing priority should be to establish a presence at MySpace, Facebook, and whatever the next communication technique that will he hot for college students.”

In other words, know your target audience and create a presence where they’ll be sure to see you. Exactly what I’ve told various friends, both in the real world and in cyber-space, MySpace isn’t the place for me.

The thing is…I reluctantly set up a MySpace page back when my first ebook came out, but I haven’t done much with it. First, it makes me nervous because my computer security system kept popping up and saying I’d clicked on a dangerous site. Second, it was obvious to me from the start that the MySpace crowd is a little young for my books. Third–and I admit this one and the next one is a personal thing–I don’t appreciate a site where anyone can send me messages telling me I’m a bitch. And fourth, am I the only person in the history of MySpace who wasn’t ‘friended’ by Tom–or whatever the heck his name is–when they first joined? What’s up with that? Does he know something about me that I don’t know? Did I do something to offend him?

<sigh> Getting back to my point, I just don’t think MySpace is the place for me to find readers. I never signed up for Facebook and I’ll keep the MySpace page, but I doubt I’ll do much with it. I’m thinking there are a lot better places for a romance author to spend her time…like GoodReads, Gather, Author’s Den, Shelfari, My Library Thing, Cata Romance, Romance Junkies, ParaNormal Romance, Coffee Time and various other of the seemingly infinte number of romance forums, Amazon, Nothing Binding, etc.

Oh man, I think my brain just exploded! Maybe I should take a break from thinking about promotions and watch the Red Sox go up against the Cardinals on Gameday. But given the June-swoon Boston seems to be in right now, I don’t think I can take it. Hey guys, do me a favor and snap out of it, would ya’? A win today over St. Louis would soothe my promotion-challenged, over-taxed mind.

No, you didn’t but thanks for mentioning it now! Terrific site and since I have a couple of YA books gathering cyber-dust on my computer, it may come in handy from more than just the promotional aspect!

“48,000 words!!!! How on earth? Working day-and-night? Deadline panic adrenaline?”

Actually, both! I’m trying to stay off the Internet and concentrate on getting the second book of my series finished before the first one comes out in August. And I did stay up all night one night because I was determined to get one scene that was giving me trouble written before I went to sleep.

“(How many pages is that anyhow?)”

I’m up to 58,600-something words now and moving into the home stretch. Can’t remember how many pages 48k was, but 58k+ is 193 without chapter breaks. The book that’s coming out in August was about 61k words, which came to 199 pages on Word and the actual book has 192–of course, that includes the title page and all those other pages in the front; dedication page, acknowledgement page, etc.; and the bio page and 2 pages at the back with blurbs from a couple of upcoming books.